Maquis' Creed

My wife is playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and before you comment, yes, I know how old it is.  But we are on Old People Gamer Time, which means when we see a game that looks good to us, we wait a few years before acquiring it.  Not only do we get a ridiculously better deal buying it used (and we wait for sales,) but we end up getting the 'game of the year' edition with all the DLC and expansions, as well as all the patches that fix the terrible bugs that plagued it at launch.

But that is not what I want to talk about.  My wife loves this whole series, and I enjoy watching her play it (I never actually get to play any games myself when she is around, I just have to sit in the room and help her navigate.)

If you are unfamiliar with the series, (first off hi, welcome to the 21st century, we play games on video screens now,) it is a history based game, where a man from 2012 is put into a machine that allows him to relive the memories of his ancestors in a computer simulation (sort of like Quantum Leap, but virtual.)

His ancestors were part of a secret society of assassins, actually THE Assassins.  They work to oppose the machinations of the Templars (everyone's favorite occult organization in these types of stories,) who are trying to locate ancient artifacts from a progenitor race that blah blah...

The cool thing of it is they get to play around in various time periods, having you jump around on rooftops in Renaissance Italy, eliminating Templars in great helms in Jerusalem during the Crusades, and fighting redcoats in Colonial America.

They do tons of research on these settings, recreating historical cities and sites with painstaking detail, and populating them with citizens in period dress, as well as having you interact with important historical figures like Richard II, Leonardo DaVinci and George Washington.

It is really cool.

The current trilogy has ended (which was actually about a dozen games, with all the different mobile and handheld versions and sidereal iterations, but that is another post,) but they are still planning future games, around different modern day protagonists and exploring a variety of time periods.

The next one, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, deals with pirates in the 17th century (you get to meet Blackbeard.)  And they have made it plain that there are tons of great historical eras they can explore.  I'm especially awaiting the inevitable Wild West version.  But they have also made it clear that they have no plans to ever have one set during WWII, which is completely understandable, since there is such a glut of games in that setting.

But i think that is a mistake, and that they are overlooking an awesome storyline opportunity.

I think they should make a game set in Nazi Occupied Paris in 1940.

There are at least five excellent reasons why this would be a perfect setting for an Assassin's Creed game, and I will now type them at you.

5.  It's a historical period few people know much about.

These games have always enjoyed doing the research and showing people sides of stories that they never knew.  Everyone knows about the second world war after America shows up and initiates the boot/ass interface for which we are famous, but the run-up to the 'real story,' i.e. everything after December 7th, 1941, is often less familiar to American (and other) audiences.

The game could help dispel that 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' image that the French get tagged with unfairly.  The best games (or any other stories, frankly,) challenge what we think we already know.  By showing a rarely seen side of a familiar conflict, you could not only engage, but educate the players, and this idea seems to be in keeping with the game designers' mission goals.

4.  The setting provides lots of great themes for storytelling opportunities

Each of the previous games has dealt with assassins moving about in hostile territory, having to avoid guards by various means.  Occupied Paris would be an excellent outgrowth of that theme, where the assassin joins with the Maquis to oppose the German occupation forces, while working to sway public opinion towards resistance, and against the Vichy government.

Lots of other great story elements are there waiting to be used: smuggling food supplies to the starving Parisians, hiding downed Allied pilots, as well as rescuing those in danger of being rounded up and sent to camps.  And there are plenty of characters to use (did you know that Josephine Baker was a major player in the resistance?)  It is a very rich setting indeed.

3.  It offers many new gameplay features

In every other game, melee combat was the primary form of fighting.  The Renaissance added a somewhat dubious pistol, and I assume that the American Revolution period added muskets.  But even in the later period, melee combat was still a valuable skill for soldiers, with Redcoats wielding bayonets and swords.

But the Germans did not carry many melee weapons.  Some will have bayonets affixed, and all can draw knives, but what they would primarily use is guns.  GOOD guns.  9mm automatic pistols, and Mauser 98k bolt-action rifles, all quite accurate and deadly.  In addition, the assassin would not have much in the way of armor, unlike the previous periods.

That means that this assassin would really have to work hard and rely on his (or her, there were plenty of female Maquis members,) stealth abilities.  That increases the challenge (think Batman: Arkham Asylum.)  If you tried to assault German (or Vichy) soldiers head-on, you would get shot to pieces.

But that skill (and reliance) on guns works both ways.  By making the opponents deadly at ranged combat, they become extremely vulnerable to melee attacks (they don't have any armor either.)  Troops with Mauser rifles would be easy to take out in close, as they struggled to bring their rifles to bear on an agile opponent in their faces, and officers with pistols would be rightly feared.  And then you have troops equipped with submachine guns, like the MP 40, which would be capable of dealing obscene amounts of damage f allowed to get their guns out.  And all of these weapons would be usable by the assassin (although most would choose not to, relying on the trust wrist blades for silence.)

But the more interesting thing could be the social dynamic.  In AC Brotherhood, you have to go around and oppose the Borgia family's influence, and you gain public support as you do so, and even recruit new members to the Assassins.

You could do that in Paris, as you keep the city from going over to the Germans.  But rather than torching Borgia towers and killing troops, you could establish supply lines for food, rescue those being persecuted by the Germans, and stop black marketers and war profiteers.  And probably blow up German trucks, because hey, it's fun.

2.  Nazis!

No matter how many times people try to tell you that Nazis are all played out as enemies (like zombies,) the fact is that Nazis are popular for a reason (also like zombies,) and people still love blowing them away (like zombies.  Hey, NAZI ZOMBIES!  I can't be the first guy to think of that...)

But this would be an opportunity to actually show the German as Germans.  You wouldn't have to have SS troops goose-stepping around the place, just regular troops in various French cities with different levels of awfulness.  I'm not trying to gain sympathies for the Nazis, but it would certainly add some depth to the story if you had to deal with a proud German officer looking for evidence of wrongdoing amongst his men so they could be punished, or a German deserter who wanted to escape Europe with he French lover.

Plus, the previous games have already established that Hitler was part of the Templar cause, and if there is one group of guys who are just begging to be seen as evil Teutonic knights steeped in mysticism and always looking for mad science weapons to rule the world, well look no further.  And THEN you can have your SS goons goose stepping all over the place.

Nazis, man!

1.  Who does not want to do the Leap of Faith off of the Eiffel fucking tower?

Paris is easily one of the most iconic cities in the world for architecture.  The Assassin's Creed games are all about cool architecture.  Paris' skyline just begs for the freerunning and parkour action of the games, with all those balconies and close set roofs.

And then there are the buildings one can scale to get a lookout.  In addition to the aforementioned metal structure, you have the Arc De Triomphe, the Louvre, the Palais Garnier, any of these would be fantastic to explore, not to mention Notre Dame.  Can you imagine a single, massive jumping challenge set amidst the rafter of the grand cathedral?

Then there are the catacombs beneath, as well as the sewers and alleyways.  Paris is just begging to be a setting for a game like this!

So you see, I am right (well, you knew that already, but now you know why.)  So all we have to do is convince Ubisoft.  It shouldn't be too hard.  They're French, after all.

N'est ce pas?